Thursday, June 09, 2011

My Life at the Theater: RAIN DANCE

(Matt Letscher)

We saw RAIN DANCE by Lanford Wilson (who died in March) at the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea, Michigan in 2001.

TPR is the dream child of Jeff Daniels and he encourages local playwrights and actors to produce plays in this lovely theater in a lovely town. I can't think of a better place to see a play.

RAIN DANCE had the added plus of staring Matt Letscher, who grew up down the street from us and has made quite a career in the theater, in movies and on TV. RAIN DANCE takes place in Los Alamos, NM in 1945 and explores decisions made by scientists in the Manhattan Project.
Hard to believe but we saw this production in 2001. It seems like yesterday.

Here is an interview with Lanford Wilson. I have seen quite a few of his plays over the years and always enjoyed them.

6 comments:

Ron Scheer said...

Got to see 5th OF JULY with (mostly) the original cast, with Christopher Reeve in the lead and Jeff Daniels, also Swoosie Kurtz. Wonderful evening in the theatre. Recently tried to watch a video of a stage production, and it's such an ensemble work that it doesn't translate to the screen at all... Thanks for the post.

pattinase (abbott) said...

That must have been amazing. Poor Chris. What a horrible end. Jeff is a terrific Detroit and Michigan booster.

Pranavam Ravikumar said...

Wonderful post!

Anonymous said...

As mentioned previously, we also saw FIFTH OF JULY (with William Hurt & Jeff Daniels) in 1981, after seeing Wilson's TALLEY'S FOLLY (with Judd Hirsch) the year before. ALso saw his BURN THIS with Joan Allen & John Malkovich.

Great stuff.

Jeff M.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe it was Christopher Reeve rather than Hurt after all. I know we saw Swoosie Kurtz, who was great.

Jeff M.

pattinase (abbott) said...

He knew how to tell a compelling story.